Learn Portuguese (Brazil) 🇧🇷

Olá como vai? 👋 ! Here’s our curated content for training your passive understanding of the language.

Instructions (tap to open)

⏰ Time spent here also counts towards your streak.

Language competency consists of active vocabulary, but also passive vocabulary and natural pattern recognition. Train essential listening skills, understand grammar and morphing patterns.

Knowing Basic Phrases allows you to stay in the language instead of switching to English. Listening-Reading videos is a comfortable yet intense training of your listening skills. It also allows you to explore the country through videos.

If you want to really be comfortable, have lessons. What makes Lingophant unique is that you can create your 100% personalised vocabulary from conversations. 45 minutes per week with a friend or a teacher is already enough input for a constant stream of engaging sentences to practice between lessons.

📔 Basic Phrases

These phrases are the perfect point of departure for serious learners. They help you stay in the language, without needing to switch to English. And you internalize patterns.

Unlock them one-by-one in the app, and memorize them from the “Practice” tab.

Basic Phrases — 14 phrases
Introductions — 19 phrases
Useful Reactions — 26 phrases
Clarifications — 16 phrases
Learning Languages — 20 phrases
Interests, Opinions, Preferences — 24 phrases
Travel Phrases — 20 phrases
Smalltalk — 22 phrases
Politeness — 8 phrases

This is just to get you started. For personalized phrases, we recommend sessions of 45 minutes with a native speaker.

  • Know 300 phrases and you can make jokes and impress people
  • Know 600 phrases and you can hold basic conversations
  • Know 1000 phrases and you start communicating effortlessly

And because of working with audio, you’ll get compliments on your pronunciation a lot. We promise!

🎧 Train your listening skills with proper documentaries

We have selected enjoyable documentaries and reportage channels. Watch them, listen to the language, and build a natural intuition. Some polyglots swear by this method — 30 minutes a day builds working proficiency.

BBC News Brasil (4.88m subs)

BBC News Brasil (view channel) – Aqui você encontra o melhor da produção em vídeo da BBC News Brasil. Inscreva-se no nosso canal!

TV Brasil (2.79m subs)

TV Brasil (view channel) – Cultura, informação, prestação de serviço e esportes. Sou a sua TV Pública! 📺💙 #TVBrasil, um veículo EBC.

DW Brasil (1.24m subs)

DW Brasil (view channel) – Jornalismo independente da Alemanha para o Brasil e o mundo.

Estadão (1.32m subs)

Estadão (view channel) – Canal de vídeos do jornal O Estado de S. Paulo.

Folha de S.Paulo (1.09m subs)

Folha de S.Paulo (view channel) – Entrevistas, documentários, análises e reportagens produzidos pela Folha

Brasil de Fato (853k subs)

Brasil de Fato (view channel) – Uma visão popular do Brasil e do mundo.

Repórter Brasil (21k subs)

Repórter Brasil (view channel) – Denunciamos violações de direitos humanos, investigamos cadeias produtivas de grandes setores e atuamos na prevenção do trabalho escravo

Opera Mundi (495k subs)

Opera Mundi (view channel) – Análise crítica, conteúdo global e o compromisso histórico com as causas populares

VEJA+ (1.22m subs)

VEJA+ (view channel) – VEJA: Saiba antes. Saiba mais.

SBT News (7.91m subs)

SBT News (view channel) – O FATO COMO ELE É.

Diogo Elzinga (732k subs)

Diogo Elzinga (view channel) – Elzinga é um curioso jornalista e explorador que busca apenas aquele “extra” do mundo ordinário que pensamos conhecer. Não espere encontrar lugares famosos aqui, apenas os interiores do nosso planeta que ninguém está prestando atenção!

ABC Terra (619k subs)

ABC Terra (view channel) – História da natureza e a natureza da história.

🎧 Train listening with weird popular YouTube videos

It’s like zapping TV through another linguistic and cultural universe. Watch what native speakers watch. We hope you find something interesting.

🧑‍🏫 Grammar overview in 9 chapters

Below is an overview of the most important grammar topics. Each chapter has a short explanation and recommended videos.

While memorizing phrases, you’ll likely recognize patterns from grammar. You can add a note or question to a card and get it answered next time you’re with a teacher.

Ser vs. Estar (Two Ways to Say ‘To Be’) A1

Brazilian Portuguese has two verbs that both translate as ‘to be’ in English: ser and estar. Ser is used for permanent or defining characteristics — identity, nationality, profession, and inherent traits (e.g., ‘Eu sou brasileiro’ — I am Brazilian; ‘Ela é médica’ — She is a doctor). Estar is used for temporary states, moods, locations, and conditions that can change (e.g., ‘Estou cansado’ — I am tired; ‘Ele está em casa’ — He is at home). Some situations can use either verb with a shift in meaning: ‘Ele é nervoso’ means he is a nervous person by nature, while ‘Ele está nervoso’ means he is nervous right now.

A reliable trick is to ask yourself: ‘Would this still be true in a year?’ If yes, lean toward ser; if it could easily change, use estar. Pay attention to how native speakers use these verbs in the phrases you study on the app — you will start to feel the pattern intuitively. Once you master this distinction, you can describe people, places, and situations accurately, express how you and others feel, and avoid one of the most common mistakes learners make in Portuguese.

Present Tense of Regular Verbs A1

Portuguese verbs are grouped into three conjugation families based on their infinitive endings: -ar (falar — to speak), -er (comer — to eat), and -ir (partir — to leave). In the present tense, each group follows a predictable set of endings attached to the verb stem. For -ar verbs: eu falo, você fala, nós falamos, eles falam. For -er verbs: eu como, você come, nós comemos, eles comem. For -ir verbs: eu parto, você parte, nós partimos, eles partem. In Brazilian Portuguese, você (you singular) and ele/ela (he/she) share the same conjugation form, which cuts your memorisation in half for those forms.

Rather than drilling conjugation tables in isolation, practise each verb inside a real sentence you actually want to say. Chunking phrases like ‘Eu trabalho aqui’ or ‘Ela come muito’ builds automatic recall far faster than abstract lists. Once you internalise these patterns, you can talk about daily routines, habits, and present actions — the backbone of almost every everyday conversation.

Noun Gender and Definite/Indefinite Articles A1

Every noun in Portuguese is either masculine or feminine, and this gender determines which article you use. The definite articles are o (masculine singular), a (feminine singular), os (masculine plural), and as (feminine plural) — equivalent to ‘the’ in English. The indefinite articles are um, uma, uns, umas — equivalent to ‘a/an’ or ‘some’. Most nouns ending in -o are masculine (o livro — the book) and most ending in -a are feminine (a mesa — the table), though there are exceptions worth noting, like o dia (the day) and o mapa (the map). Adjectives must also match the gender of the noun they describe, so getting gender right unlocks agreement across the whole sentence.

When you learn a new noun on the app, always learn it together with its article as one chunk — ‘o carro’ not just ‘carro’. This way, gender is stored as part of the word’s identity rather than a separate fact to recall. Once you have this foundation, you can correctly describe and refer to objects, people, and places using articles and matching adjectives, making your sentences sound natural and grammatically coherent.

  • When to Use O, A, OS, AS (The Definite Article Rule) – Plain Portuguese: Clearly structured lesson focused specifically on the four Portuguese definite articles with practical examples, ideal for A1 learners, and has the highest view count among relevant candidates.
  • Learn Masculine and Feminine Nouns in Brazilian Portuguese Quickly – Plain Portuguese: Complements the articles lesson by teaching recognizable patterns for noun gender (e.g. -ão, -ção endings), giving beginners practical tools to determine gender without memorizing every word.
  • Portuguese Online 10- Nouns and Articles – Portuguese Online: Covers both noun gender and multiple article types (definite and indefinite) together in one lesson, making it a well-rounded resource that aligns directly with the full A1 topic description.

Talking About the Future with ‘Ir’ (Going To) A1

The most natural way Brazilians talk about future plans and intentions is not with the formal future tense but with the present tense of ir (to go) followed by an infinitive — exactly like ‘going to’ in English. The formula is: subject + ir (conjugated) + infinitive verb. For example: ‘Eu vou viajar amanhã’ (I’m going to travel tomorrow), ‘Ela vai comprar um carro’ (She’s going to buy a car), ‘Nós vamos comer juntos’ (We’re going to eat together). The conjugations of ir in the present are: eu vou, você/ele/ela vai, nós vamos, vocês/eles vão. This structure is used constantly in both casual speech and informal writing.

Because ir is irregular and very high-frequency, it is worth memorising its present tense forms as a fixed list right away. Then combine it with infinitives you already know to generate unlimited future sentences. Once you master this construction, you can talk about weekend plans, near-future intentions, and make and respond to invitations — all essential skills for real-life conversation from very early on.

High-Frequency Irregular Verbs (Ter, Ir, Fazer, Querer, Poder) A1

A small set of irregular verbs appears in almost every conversation in Brazilian Portuguese. The most important are: ter (to have) — eu tenho, você tem, nós temos, eles têm; ir (to go) — eu vou, você vai, nós vamos, eles vão; fazer (to do/make) — eu faço, você faz, nós fazemos, eles fazem; querer (to want) — eu quero, você quer, nós queremos, eles querem; poder (to be able to/can) — eu posso, você pode, nós podemos, eles podem. These verbs appear so often that even a partial mismatch sounds jarring to native speakers, so accuracy here pays off enormously.

Because these verbs are irregular, spaced repetition through the app’s phrases is the most efficient way to lock them in — seeing ‘Eu tenho fome’ and ‘Você tem razão’ repeatedly in context beats memorising paradigms cold. Once these verbs are automatic, you can express possession, ability, desire, and action — the core building blocks of almost any message you want to communicate in Portuguese.

Essential Contractions with Prepositions (de, em, a + articles) A2

Portuguese automatically contracts certain prepositions with articles, and these contractions are mandatory — skipping them sounds unnatural. The preposition de (of/from) combines with definite articles to form do, da, dos, das (e.g., ‘a cor do carro’ — the colour of the car) and with indefinite articles to form dum, duma. The preposition em (in/on/at) contracts to no, na, nos, nas with definite articles (e.g., ‘Estou no trabalho’ — I’m at work). The preposition a (to/at) merges with the feminine definite article to form à (e.g., ‘Vou à praia’ — I’m going to the beach), though in practice Brazilians often drop this contraction in casual speech. These forms appear in virtually every sentence that mentions location, origin, or possession.

The best approach is to absorb these as fixed chunks: always say ‘no Brasil’, ‘da minha família’, ‘à noite’ rather than trying to build them from rules each time. Look out for them in every phrase you practise on the app. Once you internalise these contractions, your speech will flow naturally and you will understand spoken Portuguese far more easily, since native speakers use contracted forms constantly without pause.

Simple Past Tense (Pretérito Perfeito) A2

The pretérito perfeito is the main past tense for completed actions in Brazilian Portuguese, equivalent to both the English simple past (‘I spoke’) and present perfect (‘I have spoken’). Regular -ar verbs take endings like: eu falei, você falou, nós falamos, eles falaram. Regular -er/-ir verbs follow: eu comi/parti, você comeu/partiu, nós comemos/partimos, eles comeram/partiram. Key irregular past forms to prioritise are: fui (I went / I was — from both ir and ser), tive (I had), fiz (I did/made), vim (I came), and disse (I said). These irregular forms are extremely common in storytelling and daily recounting.

Start by mastering the você/ele/ela past forms alongside eu, since those two cover the vast majority of conversational scenarios. Notice that in the past tense, ser and ir share the same forms (fui, foi, fomos, foram), so context tells you which meaning applies. Once you control this tense, you can recount events, share experiences, ask what happened, and understand stories — skills that are indispensable for real relationships and genuine conversation.

Direct Object Pronouns (me, te, o/a, nos) A2

Object pronouns replace nouns that have already been mentioned, making speech flow naturally. In Brazilian Portuguese, the most practical object pronouns are: me (me), te (you, informal), nos (us), and the third-person forms o/a (him/her/it). In formal written Portuguese these pronouns attach to verbs with hyphens (fala-me), but in everyday Brazilian speech they almost always appear before the verb: ‘Ele me ligou’ (He called me), ‘Eu te amo’ (I love you), ‘Pode me ajudar?’ (Can you help me?). Importantly, Brazilians very commonly replace o/a with ele/ela or even drop the object entirely in casual speech: ‘Você viu?’ instead of ‘Você o viu?’ — so don’t stress about third-person object pronouns at first.

Focus first on me and te since they are the highest-frequency forms in real conversation and appear in countless everyday phrases like ‘Me dá’, ‘Me fala’, and ‘Me liga’. Once you recognise and use these pronouns naturally, you can have fluid back-and-forth exchanges, understand who is doing what to whom in conversations, and respond to requests and offers without awkward repetition of full noun phrases.

Present Subjunctive with Common Triggers B1

The subjunctive mood expresses doubt, desire, emotion, recommendation, or uncertainty — and in Brazilian Portuguese it is triggered by specific phrases followed by ‘que’. The most conversationally important triggers include: quero que (I want that/you to), espero que (I hope that), é importante que (it’s important that), tomara que (hopefully), and talvez (maybe/perhaps). After these triggers, the verb changes form: for -ar verbs, the endings become -e (fale, compre); for -er/-ir verbs, they become -a (coma, abra). For example: ‘Espero que você venha’ (I hope you come), ‘Quero que ele fale a verdade’ (I want him to tell the truth), ‘Talvez ela saiba’ (Maybe she knows).

Rather than memorising the full subjunctive paradigm upfront, learn the triggers as fixed launching pads — ‘espero que + subjunctive verb’ as one unit. When you see these trigger phrases in the app, pay attention to the verb form that follows and you will internalise the pattern naturally over time. Once you have a working grasp of the subjunctive, you can express wishes, give nuanced opinions, talk about possibilities, and understand a huge range of natural Brazilian speech that would otherwise seem grammatically puzzling.